The Ties That Bind: Materiality, Identity, and the Life Course in the "Things" Families Keep

The things we carry: migrants' personal collection management and use

Purpose

This paper explores personal collection management and use in the context of migration. The paper further investigates how migrants use items in personal collections to reflect their self-identity and learn about their heritage.

Design/methodology/approach

Interviews were used to collect data from 14 immigrants in New Zealand.

Findings

Findings show how migrants perceive the value of their personal collections, manage their personal collections during migration and use their personal collections as instruments of identity formation, self-awareness, and connections to cultural heritage.

Originality/value

Insights presented in this study increase an understanding of the critical role personal information plays in the migration and integration process.

Information in the personal collections of writers and artists: Practices, challenges and preservation

This article presents findings from interviews with 18 writers and artists in New Zealand, whose lives and work have potential heritage value. The objective was to investigate the perceived value of participants’ personal collections, the relevant management practices and challenges, and their potential effects on preservation and (re)use. The findings provide a characterisation of the personal information management (PIM) practices of writers and artists, revealed challenges common to organising personal collections across time and devices as well as those caused or increased by the nature of writers’ and artists’ work, and produce insights into the impact of perceived collection value and PIM practices on future access, preservation and (re)use of such collections.